For this month's edition of Stu's Edu-News I've decided to analyse the results of of our clients' email campaigns to teachers during April. I've looked at some of the key factors in their success and, as always, I'll be sharing the most interesting titbits with you so that you can stay ahead of the edu-marketing curve!

1) Easter holiday campaigns get a cracking response

Once again these stats break down the myth that emailing teachers outside of term time is a no-go. Analysis of our clients' campaigns show that emails sent during the Easter holidays performed well, achieving an average open rate less than 2% below term time campaigns. The difference in click-through rates was even less, just 0.74%, proving once and for all that teachers are interacting with your marketing all year round.

2) 4pm gets the best open rate, 11am the most clicks

Another myth destroyed! These stats prove once again that sending in the afternoon (and avoiding the mid-morning marketing rush) really does work. The following graph shows that, in April, 4pm was actually the best time of day to send for open rates.

3) Optimum subject line length is 70-80 characters

One thing is for sure, 100% of teachers will see your subject line, so it's crucial to get it right. The following graph shows a breakdown of the number of characters used in our clients' subject lines and how they performed. As you can see, this peaks at 70-80 characters with a 29.73% open rate. This, in turn, also produces the best click-through rate (13.25%). Be careful though, subject lines over 80 characters long see a sharpe drop-off in open rates.

Part 2: Breaking education news stories that matter to you

In this section of the blog we look at the most important breaking education news stories and discuss what the implications are for your marketing to schools. This month is a particularly political edition, with two major stories dominating the landscape.

Schools' Buying Strategy

Aimed at school leaders and business managers, the Schools’ Buying Strategy aims to support schools to save over £1 billion a year by the 2019-2020 academic year.

This document was first produced in January but it’s recently been highlighted by Justine Greening, the Education Secretary. It's a pretty daunting document but I'd urge you all to spend an afternoon poring over the details as it tells you exactly how the government plans to guide schools with their buying processes.

Here are the three main points the Schools' Buying Strategy sets out to achieve.

• Ensure that buyers have the right relationships and skills with suppliers
• Provide practical advice on buying decisions
• Ensure buyers have access to the best value

All this could be great news for your business, especially if you feel that you've been overlooked in favour of larger companies with pre-existing contracts in the past. Please take a look at the full article below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/schools-buying-strategy

The General Election

It’s fair to say that this was another political decision that no one saw coming. Whilst I’m sure there will be plenty of back and forth over the next couple of months, there have been early statements regarding the education sector which are worth bearing in mind.

Union General Secretary, Kevin Courtney has vowed to fight against budget cuts and make education funding a key election issue. Courtney has put pressure on the government to publish its planned national funding formula for schools in England.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has also picked out education as a focus point for improvement, highlighting oversized classes in particular as an issue. If elected, Mr Corbyn has said he will focus on 'keeping class sizes down and making sure schools and teachers have the resources they need to ensure that every child, whatever their background, has access to a world-class education'.

Whilst the outcome of the election will not be known until June 8th, the general election has given a voice to teachers and an opportunity to express what changes they would like to see. This is a great opportunity to hone in on these needs and take advantage of what teachers are so clearly crying out for.

That's it for me this month. See you in June!

Tags
Education Marketing Email Teachers Emailing Teachers Marketing to Schools Selling to Schools

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